Over the next week, Mewl becomes used to her new routine, of waking up in a pile of of pythoniades, eating then coaching Sd’Aira and Sd’Dera on fighting bigger opponents. Spending more time with the twins also let her gradually understand more of their non-verbal language.
Yet Mewl feels an urge building inside of her with every passing day. She longs to go hunting again, to feel the wind in her fur, to feel her muscles tensing as she moves through the trees, taste the warm blood of prey, maybe even add a new mark to her necklace. But every time that she brought the topic up with Ss’Vesh, the pythionade rebuffed her.
She is getting really tired of how constricting Ss’Vesh is.
A swipe towards her leg from Sd’Dera’s tail forces Mewl’s attention back to the present. With a snarl, she backflips over it, but while she is momentarily only supported by her hands, Sd’Aira attacks her from behind, wrapping her tail around her left arm and pulling, bringing Mewl down to the floor. Cursing herself, the pantherus wards off the follow up from Sd’Dera with her free hand before pulling her feet beneath her and jumping up.
But she didn’t account for Sd’Aira’s added weight, and it unbalanced her, bringing her to ground yet again. Sd’Dera took the opportunity to wrap herself around her other arm, effectively ending the spar. Both of the twins help Mewl to her feet, before Sd’Aira gesticulates “what’s wrong?” Mewl gesticulates back, her own hands much slower than Sd’Aira’s. “Need. Hunt. Kill. Wind.”
“Ss’Vesh?” Sd’Dera asks, wrapping herself tail around her sister’s
“No” Mewl responds, huffing.
“Evade her, talk to hyrka instead?” Sd’Aira suggests.
“Possibility. Help?” The twins look at each other, before nodding as one. “Leave now?” They nod again, and after a few words with Ss’Vesh -Mewl recognises hyrka and her own common name- they’re off.
Despite having already spent a week in the underground village, it still feels alien to her. Everything just feels so different, from the feel of the smooth stones on her paws, to the way the air felt stagnant and empty, to the weird, green lighting their fluorescent plants gave. Mewl lets the twins lead the way as she looks around herself, trying to absorb and acclimate herself to every detail.
Until a squeak breaks her out of her wonder.
In front of her is a crested pythionade, standing tall as if to bar her view from… is that a baby?
Yes, behind the pythionade there is a small, also crested pythionade, his eyes hesitantly peeking out from behind who Mewl assumes to be his mother. Sd’Dera argues with the mother about something, and by the way that the pythionade is pointing over and over again at Mewl she assumes it to be her presence here in the village.
Yet Mewl can’t bring herself to care, her eyes locked with the tiny, adorable little pythoniade, who is courageously, peeking more and more of himself out from behind his mother and ever so slowly moving towards Mewl. The arguing fades out from Mewl’s perception as she crouches down to be on level with the baby pythoniade.
He extends one of his scaled hands.
Carefully, to not spook either him or his mom, Mewl puts her head beneath it.
She watches as his eyes light up, and one hand becomes two as he starts scratching all over her head, and when he scratches behind her ear Mewl can’t control herself and lets out a purr, which only encourages the little boy more.
Eventually though, his mom pulls him away, her gaze softened, and the little pythionade waving fondly as he goes on his way. Mewl straightens herself, before turning to the twins, who are barely holding themselves together. “What.” Mewl gesticulates.
“You. Are. So. Hissung. CUTE!” Sd’Aira gesticulates back.
With an eye roll Mewl starts moving forwards, not caring where exactly she is going as long as it is away from the twins, who, while laughing their hissing laugh, quickly catch up and take the lead again. They arrive at hyrka’s office without any other interruptions.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
The office, both on the outside and inside, contradicts what Mewl expects from a leader. Unlike the other buildings she has been in so far, the office is very open, not having a door and several glass-covered windows. Mewl briefly wonders how the pythoniades got the glass, as her own tribe had to barter with humans for all of theirs. The inside doesn’t have many decorations, just the usual carpeted floor and luminescent plants, as well as a long bench for people to wait, and a door leading towards another room. The door has a skittish looking pythoniade next to it, who quickly dashes in the door right after Mewl and the twins come in.
Not soon after, Sv’Irey herself comes out and ushers Mewl inside. Her office is even blander that the outside, just having a desk that Sv’Irey can place papers in, being illuminated by the moss covering the walls.
“How can I help you Melaine?” The hyrka asks, moving behind her desk.
“I wanted to know if I could head into the forest. Hunt a bit of prey, then come back.” Mewl says, fidgeting slightly as the pythoniade leader starts looking through the papers stacked on her desk.
“Of course you can. I would advise to bring at least one of Ss’Vesh’s squad members with you though. I hear the mountain passages aren’t very easy to traverse to those who aren’t used to them.” Sv’Irey says. After Mewl doesn’t leave, still dumbfounded at how easy this was, Sv’Irey looks up from her papers. “Was there something else you wanted to talk about?”
“I just,” Mewl says, still fidgeting slightly, “didn’t expect that to be so easy.”
“Melaine. You’re not a prisoner here.” Sv’Irey says, her voice softening. “You can come and go as you wish.” After a moment of thinking, she adds, “though if you bring some meat back with you it would be greatly appreciated.”
Mewl nods, says her goodbyes, and takes her leave.
Outside, Sd’Aira and Sd’Dera gesture wildly to Mewl, wanting to know about the meeting. The pantherus brings them up to speed, and asks if they want to join her in her hunt, which they enthusiastically agree. It seems being stuck inside wasn’t just messing with Mewl.
Soon after they are back in the bunker, getting supplies. Well, the twins are getting supplies, Mewl is currently being yelled at by Ss’Vesh.
“When I said that you shouldn’t go out, it wasn’t because I was being mean to you, I just don’t want to get hurt.” Said pythoniade says.
“Nothing in these woods can hurt me. I have lived in them my entire life, Violet.” Mewl says, flickering her tail with annoyance.
“What about humans?” Mewl tenses up at that, unpleasant memories of both her nightmares and of her actual time in captivity going through her mind. “Those aren’t of the forest. Besides, if I wander into any, that will be a much bigger problem than just me being hurt.”
“I still don’t like it.” Ss’Vesh says, moving closer to Mewl, who takes a step back in response.
“You don’t have to like it. I’m not a prisoner here. Or am I?” Ss’Vesh visibly flinches at the accusation, as if Mewl has stricken her. Yet, the resolve in her eyes only hardens.
“Fine. But I’m coming with you.” Ss’Vesh says, right as the twins come back with the supplies. Without another word, Ss’Vesh pushes past them and leads the way. Sd’Aira gesticulates “What happened?” Which Mewl can only respond to with “Later.” as she puts on a burst of speed to catch up with Ss’Vesh.
The short journey out of the city and into the forest is silent, as Mewl is too angry at Ss’Vesh to even consider talking to her. The twins both gesticulate to her, asking her what's wrong, yet Mewl can’t articulate exactly what she feels, with her rudimentary grasp of their non verbal language.
Soon they reach a clearing in the forest. “Stop.” Mewl grumbles out. “You three stay here. I’ll be back with the prey soon.”
And she’s gone.
Darting through the trees at her top speed, Mewl can barely stop herself from yelling out in joy from the feeling of the wind in her fur, the wood in her claws, the smells of the forest in her nose once again. The world feels so much more alive in the forest than it does in the village. After a solid ten minutes of aimless dashing, Mewl stops, panting from the exthersion. She closes her eyes, and listens and smells the prey around her. She instantly knows what she’s hunting.
There is a treehaunt nearby.
With careful steps, Mewl stalks up to the treehaunt. It's busy trying to open up a dead tree, looking for the grubs inside. Despite herself, Mewl takes a moment to appreciate the sheer size of the thing. It’s easily ten feet tall, its gray fur messy and dotted with moss and dead leaves.
Making extra sure her steps are silent, Mewl sneaks up on the treehaunt before jumping on its back, aiming to lock her jaws on the back of its head. But, as she sinks her claws on its shoulders and back, angling for the kill, the treehaunt howls in pain, rearing up and shaking itself, dislodging Mewl and sending her skidding across the forest floor. The treehaunt straightens itself and turns to face her, baring her teeth at her. Mewl bares her own teeth back at her, before dashing on towards it again, building up speed.
With a growl, the treehaunt starts dashing towards her as well.
On the last second before their clash, however, Mewl jumps to the side, pouncing on its arm and using her weight to knock it off balance, taking a bite out of its shoulder muscle.
Once again, the treehaunt howls in pain, but before it can strike back, Mewl jumps up into the trees again. The treehaunt looks around, trying to spot her as she dashes from canopy to canopy. For one moment, the treehaunt turns its back to her.
One moment is all it takes.
In a flash, Mewl falls on top of it, her powerful jaws snapping shut on the back of its skull with a powerful crunch, her claws digging deep furrows on its back. Once again the treehaunt howls, but it’s the last sound it makes, as it slowly topples forward into the soft forest floor.
Mewl takes a moment to appreciate her victory, her claws and snout tinged yellow with the treehaunt’s blood.
But then she is tackled from the corpse.
With a snarl, she is about to attack the new threat until she realizes it’s Ss’Vesh. Mewl is about to scream at her when she notices a dreadmaw on top of the treehaunt, right where she was just a moment ago. The dreadmaw takes one look at them, bites the neck of the treehaunt, and runs deeper into the forest.
With her prey.
A primal fury wells inside of Mewl at that, and she looks at Ss’Vesh, the source of the issue.
“Why did you do that?!” She yells, pushing Ss’Vesh away from her.
“I was trying to protect you!” Ss’Vesh responds, also yelling.
“I DON’T NEED YOUR PROTECTION, VIOLET. I CAN TAKE CARE OF MYSELF!” Mewl snarls, baring her teeth.
Ss’Vesh stops, and whispers softly. “Maybe I want to protect you for me.”
“What do you mean?” Mewl says, taking a step towards Ss’Vesh. The pythoniade seems… vulnerable in that moment. More vulnerable than Mewl had ever seen her before.
With a deep breath, Ss’Vesh says, “I’m in love with you, you dumb cat.”